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Worst knitting night ever

Submitted by scottly on Fri, 2009-06-05 19:21

The good news is I finally got my own swift and winder. The unwound hanks were starting to pile up and Knit Picks had a good deal. My first couple of balls were all sloppy then I figured out that the tensioner had to be pulled out everything went fine. I was having so much fun I had to tear myself away to do other stuff. Well that turned out to be the highlight of my evening. I was trying to finish up a pair of socks to give to my sister this weekend and at the very end of the last sock - seriously, I had only one more decrease row to go then finish off the toe and I droped the last SSK off the needle and it instantly dropped down like three rows. After trying to pick them back up for almost 15 minutes I decided to tink back as many rows as I needed to to get them. Well, I'm on size 0s, my stitches are nice and tight and the yarn is just elastic enough to really make it difficult. Long story short I ended up pulling the needles out and unraveling the entire toe past all the decreases back to the foot and picking up the stitches again. Two hours later I think I have it all fixed but I'm also ready for bed and the loony bin. This is the first time that knitting has almost made me cry like a little girl - really, in between cursing like a sailor and primal screams, I almost started bawling. I'm about to pick that sock up again and hopefully finish it. If anyone knows a knitting god to pray to, please let me know.

ewwwwww, been there done that, and I was on 7's when I did it, I cant' even imagine the pure hell of 0's. I ended up doing exactly the same, going back to the last row without decreases and continuing from there. And I did cry, but, no one here understands the hard work of knitting so I blamed it on hayfever. Suckers believed me, who has hayfever in December?

Great learning opportunity!
This is where the dreaded crochet hooks come in very handy. Since you are working in stockinette stitch it is very easy to repair a dropped stitch if ya know how. Let me do a quick Google and see if I can find some already made instructions...http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/secure-html/onlineec/instructionalArticle.asp?iaid=23
Good pictures and lots or words. I did not read the words so don't know if they cover 2 of the major points. 1)...You want to use a crochet hook that is the same size as your knitting needle. If you know the metric size of the needle it is exactly the same for the crochet hook a US 0 will probably be 2mm (some manufacturers may be .5mm different so check) so get a 2mm or Steel 1, an aluminum B is 2.25mm and there is no A.
2)...It is almost always easier to put your hook into the stitch BELOW the one hanging out the waiting to be hooked back up; once in the good stitch, pull down to run the last one then start hooking up.
Also a note, if you have decreased sts in there to hook up you'll see them carefully put the "extra" stitch on the hook also and pull the next rung of the ladder thru both of them.

Strange but true crochet hook sizing info...there are 2 separate sizing systems in use...aluminum and steel. Aluminum are for yarns and bigger stuff and the steels for finer yarns and threads. Alum hook go from large Q or O down to B and Steels go from 00 (double zero) to 16 with strange overlap in the middle. C 00 B 0 1 etc. Google it and you will find charts if anyone is interested.

Oh, here we go...Religion and Knitting. Reared a Roman Catholic, I can only say that as far as I know of the sacred and the profane, the Curia in Rome has neglected this area, given that Western Europe learned about knitting from Arab sailors via Venice and the silk trade.

Since that makes it only about 6oo years old to these folks, it's too early to have a patron saint of knitting.

What's with that? Isn't there a patron saint of flight attendants, for Christ's sake (literally)? The guilds of Venice and then England adopted patrons. I guess, the one for needles will have to suffice (ouch!) or perhaps the one for silk weavers (that may wear too thin, too quickly). The one for leather-work may be too butch for some.

I nominate St. Genesius, the patron saint of actors and comedians. Nice to know our passion is apostasy...I draw comfort from that for some reason. Ya know what I mean?

“There are those that do and those that don’t”
“Those that will and those that won’t”

Every person I encounter teaches me more about myself. Without whom not.

My crochet hooks almost always do the trick. Really this is the first time I had to resort to unraveling back that far. It seemed the more I poked and prodded with my hook the worse the plys kept seperating and the harder it was to see what was actually going on. It was just one of those things.

Lol, this is when I frog one stitch at a time until I get to the offending row, I have learned that it is just as fast if not faster than trying to fix the problem without going back crochet hooks are great if it is straight knitting but if decreases are involved I frog it one stitch at a time, especially with lace grrrrrrrrrr

I feel the pain and sympathize. Many times, I also tink back and just redo the whole thing, saving my sanity (what little remains) and preventing nearby ears being curled by my extremely harsh words. Sometimes a crochet hook gets called upon, not often. -- Books, knitting, cats, fountain pens...Life is Good.

Hey Scottly,
I was sorry to hear about your dropped ssk on your sock. It's even more difficult when your at the tail end of a project. Although I have yet to knit a pair of socks I've had my share of knitting frustrations. Your a funny guy, I always enjoy your reads.

I had one of those nights a couple of nights ago. It seems like every time I start thinking that I don't need to worry too much about making mistakes (I am perfect after all...right?)...my knitting teaches me a lesson. It's like, "You stupid idiot, I can kick your ass if you let me."
-Thomas

I have my first pair of socks... I'm calling them 'odd socks' even though they are a pair. I'm doing the gusset of the second sock but ... I fucked up the pattern... where I altered the pattern for the first sock, I couldn't alter it for the second because nothing was going right... so I followed the pattern... so I have one sock that is all knit... and the second sock in knit up to the heel then from then on it is purl all the way...

My Dad will get the socks... they are super bulky, so perfect for the 6am starts on the icy golf course back home... I'll tell him that the socks are odd because ... his feet are odd... his arches have dropped, so I figure he needs a right foot sock and a left... so the yarn will mold to his feet especially if he always has dedicated feet.

I wanted to pull out a sock...and start again, but which sock? Oh well... so I'm just going finish off the second sock and leave it at that... because I fly home soon... and have run out of time.

So crying over knitting, I've come close a few times now...not yet cried... but there's always a first time